Wednesday, 27 April 2011

In order to get a Hackney License, London cab drivers must do ‘The Knowledge’. This means poring over maps to learn by heart 320 runs (routes from A to B) and 30,000 points (places of interest).

Historic map of London Westminster from 1745

A recently discovered map seems to indicate that coachmen were doing much the same in 1785. The rare linen map shows routes through the labyrinthine streets of Georgian London, lists places of interest and even details fares.

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

We should all remember the following classic quote from an infamous source:

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Donald Rumsfeld

Environmental professionals are required to access a vast array of data during their environmental studies, paying for this data can be expensive, especially when the data you paid for proves to be not applicable to your site. For example you are required to review the proximity and location of any hazardous waste sources, you purchase the data, export and download it for the project area plus a 1000 m radius, and there are happen to be no sources, is the money wasted in paying for a negative answer, what are the alternatives?

www.findmaps.co.uk is a website that allows you to view and, if required, print environmental data in the pre-report phase of a project, saving you both time and money. It is also a cost effective method of allowing you compile information that may be relevant to Tender preparation.

For many environmental studies, you as an environmental professional, are required to confirm and certify the existence or non-existence and proximity of an array of information for your project site. FIND Maps has come up with a cost effective alternative to blindly downloading or ordering this data. We are the ONLY online data provider who has a ‘pay per view’ service with no minimum required spend. www.findmaps.co.uk contains an ever expanding array of data relevant to environmental professionals. We currently have nearly 200 different datasets, and based upon recommendations from our clients we are expanding this continually.

How does our PAY PER VIEW service operate??

The website allows users to select their area of study, map scale and base map. Environmental professionals are then able to view their targeted data at a much reduced fee as opposed to -paying a more expensive fee to print or export the data. . You as a professional can then confidently certify those datasets which are not applicable to your project site and note in any report that there are no occurrences in the project site. You have now cost effectively confirmed the known knowns and the known unknowns. All views once paid for are recorded and you are able in the future to access that data via your saved project on our FIND Maps site. The length of time that you can access the stored view depends upon the data providers individual licensing requirements, but it will typically be several months.

Now that you know which data is applicable to your project area you can now just pay to PRINT (as a layered PDF or JPG) or EXPORT only THE DATA THAT OCCURS ON YOUR PROJECT SITE for storage on your own GIS or CAD system. Either of these options is cheaper via FIND Maps than at any of other mapping provider.

Viewing the Unknown - Pollution incidents

The Unknown Confirmed.....No pollution incidents

Total cost 50p vs many ££ to buy the data and no minimum charge

Time savings: Instant Access Vs. Weeks from the Environment Agency

££££££’s

So what are the Savings??

As an example, let us take a theoretical area of interest of 1 sq km around a location and say 20 different datasets that require analysis per the project Environmental Review specification.

Option A

Total Cost if all 20 datasets are acquired £ 200.00

Option B- The FIND Maps Option

Total cost to view all 20 datasets £ 40.00

From viewing the data only 10 datasets apply to your area

Print cost of 10 datasets £ 40.00

Total Cost of Option B £ 80.00

Net Savings £ 120.00

The savings can be considerable, especially for organizations engaged in producing many environmental reports a year.

FORMAL REPORTS:

For projects where the client requires a formal report, FIND Maps is a leading supplier of GroundSure Insight Bundles. These are a cost effective alternative to other Packages on the market and are available from FIND Maps for only £179.

GroundSure Insight Bundles utilise more datasets, have a higher resolution and are cheaper than competitor products.

About FIND Maps

FIND Maps's online mapping portal - www.findmaps.co.uk – offers the UK's most advanced and user-friendly mapping software as a business service. Supported by the most reputable data providers in the country, including Ordnance Survey and the Environment Agency, we have catagorised the huge range of data available into Data Packages.